Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Lately I have been eating a lot of Asian inspired dishes. But on Monday I was in a mediterranean mood. I had these two eggplants and didn't quite know what to do with them. I was thinking about the baked eggplant slices with tomato I have made before, but I wanted something a bit more substantial. I wanted a one-dish meal. I ended up with this chicken and eggplant dish. It was quite simple to make and it still is low fat and low in calories. This HUGE dish of food split into six very generous portions packs less than 200 calories per serving.

I cut up two eggplants into 1 inch cubs which resulted in about 6 cups of eggplant. I also cubed up 16 oz of boneless skinless chicken breast. This was tossed together with 1 large onion, chopped, about a half cup of chopped garlic-stuffed green olives, 1 whole head of chopped garlic, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a couple tablespoons of dried oregano, salt and pepper. This was all placed in my large wide porcelain pan and drizzled with just a scant tablespoon of olive oil on the top. Now, normally I would have soaked the dish with olive oil but I'm trying to be light. This was baked in a 400F oven until all the vegetables and chicken were cooked through, the juices were bubbling up, and the top was beginning to caramelize. This took about an hour. You can see I served it with some of my mixed beans and grains. The garlic, olives and oregano really make this dish sing.